Top Five (6/10): Chris Rock referencing Linklater, Allen, and Iñarritu.

"No everything does not mean something. Okay, sometimes a movie is just a movie. Sometimes a song is just a song. Sometimes a joke is just a joke.”

Top Five is the third time that Chris Rock sits on the director’s chair, and like in his previous movies he wrote the screenplay and starred in it, but this is by far his most critically acclaimed film. It works best when it focuses on the relationship developing during the course of one day between the character he plays, Andre Allen, a Hollywood celebrity comedian who is trying to become a serious actor, and Chelsea Brown, a NY Times reporter played by Rosario Dawson who is trying to write a piece on the actor’s life. The chemistry between both actors is pretty strong and the scenes in which they both walk around the streets of NY together having honest conversations is reminiscent of Linklater’s Before trilogy and some of Woody Allen’s earlier work. That was the highlight of the film for me, but I wasn’t a fan of some of the flashbacks included in the movie, especially the one where Andre confessed the lowest point of his life to her involving a scene taking place in Houston with Cedric the Entertainer that many found hilarious, but I found extremely vulgar. The scenes taking place in the present while Andre introduced Chelsea to his family in NY were also pretty solid, with a funny cameo from Tracy Morgan as his brother. 

But Top Five is also a satire of celebrity lifestyle and reality TV. There are some comparisons to Birdman, due to the fact that Andre is a famous actor known for playing the popular character of Hammy the Bear in a Blockbuster Hollywood franchise, but he is tired of simply being a funny man and wants to leave an important legacy by making serious movies. That is why now he is trying to promote his new dramatic film in which he plays a Haitian revolutionary who helps the slaves uprise against their white masters. However his fans seem more interested in his upcoming marriage with reality TV star Erica Long (Gabrielle Union). Chris Rock uses satire and clever dialogues to tackle some of these issues, but I honestly enjoyed the film more when it centered on his relationship with Chelsea and simply had the camera following the two around the city. There is a funny cameo that takes place in a prison, that Chris Rock uses effectively to state the underlying message of the film which is sticking to what you do best. 

In a way this film is sort of autobiographical considering Rock hasn’t been doing anything interesting lately or nearly as engaging as his stand up routine. There are several underlying themes throughout the film (and in way at times they do feel disjointed or convoluted) but one of them is about returning to your roots and doing what you do best, which in Rock’s case is stand up comedy. This film is written in such a way that it has that similar feeling and you can imagine Rock telling these jokes in a stage. The title, Top Five, comes up often in conversations as the characters give their personal list of favorite MC’s. I honestly didn’t know half of the people they were listing so I won’t attempt to make a personal list as many have done after watching the film, but it is evident that Rock has an appreciation for hip hop and it is heavily used as a theme throughout the movie. Overall this is Rock’s best film as a director and there are several engaging and funny scenes throughout the film. Seeing Rosario Dawson and Chris Rock sharing this great chemistry together was the best part of Top Five. 

Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (6/10): Lacks the emotional impact of the first film

"Sin City is where you go in with your eyes open, or you don't come out at all."

There has been a widespread claim that if you were a fan of the first film you will definitely love this sequel, but it wasn't the case for me. I called Sin City a masterpiece nine years ago when it first came out, but A Dame to Kill For doesn't even come close to that claim. One could argue and say that the novelty of these dark graphic novel adaptations has warn off considering that when Sin City first came out the visuals were groundbreaking unlike anything we had seen before. Perhaps it may have something to do with the fact that I haven't enjoyed the recent adaptations (the last one I really liked was 2009's Watchmen), but I know that my disappointment doesn't just come from this. A Dame to Kill For is as visually striking as the first film and it captures that pulpy film noir essence really well once again. What Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez don't do well however is build the suspense and connect the intertwining storylines like they did the first time. You have all these interesting characters returning and some new faces, but the stories didn't resonate with me this time around. Despite using the same formula and delivering in visuals and style, the three different storylines don't connect together. The film still has that same dark feel to it where it seems you are watching a comic book come to life, but the stories aren't as interesting and the narration isn't as gripping. So despite enjoying the visuals, this film was a huge disappointment for me and I don't think that the reason for it was that the novelty has worn off because it was the best aspect of this sequel.

Most would agree that the best character in Sin City is Marv (Mickey Rourke) and thankfully we get a lot of him once again. The story is at its best when it centers around him. Some of the new characters were also fun to watch. Joseph Gordon Levitt as Johnny was one of my favorites in this sequel. His character is suave and cocky, but always fun. His scenes facing off the main villain played by Powers Boothe are the highlight of the film along with Marv. We also get a lot more scenes from Nancy (Jessica Alba) and this time she has more depth to her character as well. Josh Brolin also gives a solid performance as Dwight, but unfortunately his segment is the weakest. So we get all these cool characters and everything seems to be perfect once again, but somehow the stories don't intertwine as effectively as they did the first time. The stories aren't as shocking and they lack that emotional punch that Sin City delivered the first time. The film is gratuitously violent once again, but it isn't effective. The impact was missing. There were also several characters that took me out of the film. I loved Bruce Willis in the first film, but there was no need to include him here. He took me out of the movie. The longest segment in this film involving Josh Brolin and Eva Green was also the least interesting. Green has fun with her character once again like she did in the 300 sequel, but this time her storyline is way too familiar. All she does here is be nude and seduce men. The subplot where she seduces Christopher Meloni was completely unnecessary, as were his scenes with Jeremy Piven. 

So despite some of the interesting things that A Dame To Kill For had going for it, it has several flaws which make the story drag at times. This is the sort of film in which you should be having fun, but I found myself bored with some of these segment. The narration might seem silly at times, but it worked the first time as a parody of noir films. This time it felt dull. I know my review sounds negative but it is because I expected a lot more from this sequel. I still had a fun time watching Marv once again, I also appreciated that Alba had more screen time, and loved the addition of Joseph Gordon-Levitt to the already incredible cast. Unfortunately there were some elements that didn't connect with me and the stories failed to fit together as they did the first time.

My Review: The Captive (5/10)

“You claim you didn’t see anything suspicious when you looked back to the truck.”

The Captive is the latest film directed by Atom Egoyan (The Sweet Hereafter) which happened to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival this year where it was booed by the audience. I’d definitely not boo this film considering I didn’t think it was a complete disaster, but I didn’t really like it either. My reactions are mixed. On the one hand it tries to stand out from other kidnapping films by incorporating a non-linear structure, but unfortunately it doesn’t really help the narrative either. It doesn’t seem to have the character depth nor suspense that other successful movies dealing with kidnappings have. It is rather unfortunate as well that it was released one year after the highly praised Prisoners which was a much better film. There are some suspenseful moments in The Captive, but it is hard to care for these characters considering they weren’t developed at all. They all seem to be sort of emotionally disconnected and the captive girl never seemed to had suffered any side effects from her captivity at all.   

Despite all the misfires this film had there was a character that sort of managed to keep me interested, and I think it has to do in most part with Aaron Reynolds’s solid performance. He plays the father of the kidnapped girl and he is the only one who seems believable in this world. While the film focused on him, it kept me engaged and interested, but as soon as the focus shifted to the other characters the story suffered. On the one hand you have the procedural part of the film that is incredibly annoying due to the poor job the detectives are doing on the case. The film failed to give the audience any plausible reason as to why these detectives were so intent on blaming the father for the kidnapping of the girl when he didn’t actually do anything suspicious. Then on the other hand we get to see the kidnaper’s relationship with the kidnapped girl which is completely unrealistic. So when the film departs from the Reynolds character (and it does so way too often) it completely looses its appeal. Mireille Enos plays the mother, but she doesn’t add much to the film. When her initial reaction is to blame the father for the disappearance of the girl you kind of feel cheated because there is no rational explanation for these sort of behaviors. The entire reasoning behind this seemed to be to isolate the father and make us feel sympathetic towards him. There are some thrills in The Captive, but nothing really special to recommend.

My Review: Gimme Shelter (5/10)

"I'm just asking you for a little time."

Vanessa Hudgens' latest film, Gimme Shelter, is based on an inspiring true story in which she plays a pregnant teenager named Apple, who has been abused and felt unwanted all her life. I'm sure the true story is an inspiring one, and I admire Apple's strength to continue fighting despite all the hardships she went through. I also admire those people who took her in and helped her, but just because the real life story is inspiring that doesn't mean I enjoyed this film. The story has several flaws and feels very manipulative. It never felt authentic and I really had a hard time believing Hudgens' performance. An inspirational film should try to be less manipulative and feel more authentic and real, but the characters in this film never felt real. The dialogue in the film wa weak and everything felt rushed in such a way that there was no time to delve into what led to some of the characters changes in behaviors. It seemed like director, Ron Krauss, was rushing the story to its feel good ending without really stopping to analyze the pain and hardships Apple went through. These films are usually hard to make and very few are able to succeed in feeling authentic and this wasn't the exception. I wasn't sold by Hudgens' performance and that also hurt my appreciation for the film. It's a film with good intentions and an inspiring tale, but they failed to transmit it in a compelling way.

Brendan Fraser plays Apple's father who she has never met because he was only 19 years old when he left her mother, June (played by Rosario Dawson) pregnant. June hasn't been a good mother figure for Apple as she spends her time getting high so Apple has been in and out of shelters and foster care all her life. She has been abused several times, so she finally decides to leave her violent mother and find her dad. She finds him and discovers he's a big shot in Wall Street. Stephanie Szostak plays his wife and together they have two young children. They take Apple in, but have trouble coping with the fact she is pregnant. When they try to convince her to have an abortion, Apple is back in the streets again. After an accident, a nice Priest (James Earl Jones) visits her and convinces her to go to a shelter run by a nun named Kathy (Ann Dowd) who specializes in treating pregnant teenagers. This is where Apple finds a loving family for the first time in her life. The performances in this film were all hurt by the weak script. I didn't understand Fraser's character very well either and the story failed to transmit why he and his wife had a change of heart. Ann Dowd plays a very different character here than the one she does in The Leftovers so it was nice to see her in a much friendlier role. Rosario Dawson was convincing as a junky and abusive mother. There is not much more I can say about this film, it wasn't terrible but it wasn't good either.

My Review: Trance (5/10)

"The choice is yours. Do you want to remember or do you want to forget?"

I choose to forget all about Trance because I was really disappointed by this Danny Boyle film. It isn't a terrible movie, but it is Boyle's worst film since 1997's A Life Less Ordinary. After making some great films like 28 Days Later, Sunshine, and Slumdog Millionaire this film felt way out of his league. He was probably too busy planning the Olympic ceremonies and didn't give much dedication to this project which had a lot of style but no story. One of the reasons I didn't like this film is because I felt all the twists were kind of bland and they got tedious after a while. I felt kind of like the same way I felt with Now You See Me where they use hypnosis as an excuse to justify the twists and mix dreams with reality. The film didn't make much sense and some twists really didn't work for me. It is a shame because I did like the cast and thought they gave some strong performances despite the weak and lazy script written by Joe Ahearne and John Hodge. Trance had its moments, but it was all generic material that we've seen before, and the over stylized scenes weren't enough for me to recommend this film. I felt like there was no substance to this movie and I was completely detached to everything that was going on.

The film is narrated by Simon (James McAvoy), an art auctioner of very expensive and classical art pierces. During one of the auctions a heist takes place and he takes a blow to the head from Franck (Vincent Cassel), one of the four thieves involved in the heist. When he wakes up from the head injury he can't remember what happened, but apparently he hid the painting that the thieves were looking for. Franck and his crew torture Simon, who apparently was in on the heist as well, in order for him to tell them what he did with the painting, but it's useless because he really can't remember. That is where Elizabeth (Rosario Dawson) comes is. She's a hypnotherapist who begins treating Simon in order for him to remember where he hid the lost painting. The film is full of twists and double crossings but it is best to go into the movie knowing as little as possible.

Trance may stand out from other movies of the genre thanks to its style and cinematography, but what it has in style it lacks in substance. The twists didn't work for me either and in a thriller like this it is a must. The film began with promise but ultimately I didn't like the direction it began to take halfway through the movie. The cast in this film was pretty solid. McAvoy was great as usual and his breakdown was really believable on screen. Dawson was beautiful and sort of plays the femme fatale here to perfection. Cassel was also pretty good although his character didn't have much substance to him. Ultimately the film suffers from a weak script and an overdose of twists and turns that become tedious and a little unbelievable after a while. Skip this movie!

My Review: 10 Years (7/10)

¨Now the party can start!¨

The film is about a 10 year High School reunion, and I know that the formula seems repeated and overdone but this film felt fresh and original. The cast is great and they all share a good amount of screen time. This film manages to deal with all the separate stories and characters much better than other high budget films tried to (Valentine`s Day and New Year`s Eve). I was interested in the different relationships between these characters and was hooked from the beginning. I thought Channing Tatum would be the lead character and that the story would focus around him, but it actually doesn’t; everyone gets a decent amount of screen time. There is no side story here, all the stories are equally relevant and have sufficient time to find some sort of closure. 10 Years was written and directed by Jamie Linden and this was his first film as a director. He had written the screenplays for Dear John and We Are Marshall. Here he gets to work with Tatum once again, but my favorite performance from this movie came from Oscar Isaac, who I really liked in Drive. Drive was my favorite movie from 2011, and despite the fact that Ryan Gosling carried that movie; I thought Isaac was absolutely perfect in his role as well. The chemistry he shares here with Kate Mara is amazing, and the song he performs at the karaoke bar was one of the highlights of the movie. 10 Years is not a laugh out comedy, but it has it`s funny moments. I felt like it worked best as a sort of melancholic romantic drama. The actors were all perfectly casted in my opinion and they each delivered. 10 Years was a lovely and entertaining film.

As I mentioned before the story revolves around a 10 year High School reunion. The first couple that`s introduced in the story is Jake (Channing Tatum) and Jess (Jenna Dewan-Tatum) who have been dating over three years. Jess is going to accompany Jake to his High School reunion. Before going to the party they stop to meet up with Jake`s High School buddies Cully (Chris Pratt) and Sam (Ari Graynor) who are happily married with two kids. Then they also reunite with Marty (Justin Long) and AJ (Max Minghella), and with Scott (Scott Porter) and Suki (Eiko Nijo) who are visiting from Japan. The last one that meets up with them is Reeves (Oscar Isaac), the most successful person from his class who has become a rock celebrity. Together they arrive at the High school reunion and meet up with the rest of their classmates. Cully, who was the class bully, is trying to redeem himself from his past and is looking to make amends with all the nerds. Jake is surprised when he sees  his ex-High School sweetheart, Mary (Rosario Dawson) arrive with her hubby Paul (Ron Livingston). Apparently Jake and Mary were pretty much a perfect couple during their teenage years. And then there`s Elise (Kate Mara) who always played it low in High School, but who Reeves remembers all too well as the girl who got away. There are several other supporting characters who also contribute to the overall humor and heart of the film like Garrity (Brian Geraghty), the ¨whigger¨ and his wife Olivia (Aubrey Plaza) who had never heard of that side of Garrity.

There is no novelty or breakthrough in this film. The story has been told before and we`ve seen the characters in other movies. In a way 10 Years reminded me of an 80`s John Hughes movie. The film really worked thanks to some great performances from the cast and an emotionally gripping script. I was really hooked with some of the stories and the way in which these characters interacted with each other. Despite the ten years that had gone by, these characters still remained the same deep down inside and some needed closure. I loved Isaac`s character and his song. His story and the chemistry between him and Mara was pretty intense. Aubrey Plaza really didn’t get much screen time, but I saw her as a leading lady in Safety Not Guaranteed and there is no doubt she is really talented. Tatum got to act beside his wife once again after first meeting her on the set of Step Up. There was really a lot of chemistry between so many of these characters and they all seemed like real life friends. This is an interesting directorial debut from Jamie Linden and I hope more people get to see this good movie.

  

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My Review: Zookeeper (2/10)

¨I know it shouldn’t bother me that you`re a zookeeper, but it kind of does.¨

Kevin James is at it again, although this time instead of receiving love advice from Hitch, he`s listening to the animals from the zoo. From the trailers I kind of expected this movie to be a cross between Dr. Doolittle and Night at the Museum, and it definitely was what I expected (and even worse). Zookeeper might have been written by five different screenwriters, but the story and dialogues are far from original. I couldn’t help but sense that I`d seen this movie a million times before. It`s like they blended a bunch of James`s comedies together and came up with this mixture called Zookeeper. There are hardly any funny moments in the movie, the talking animals thing isn’t new and it just didn’t work, the characters were all one dimensional, there was no chemistry whatsoever between any of the actors or animals, and the film relied heavily on Kevin James`s well known by now physical comedy and familiar gags. Frank Coraci has done some greater work in the past with films like Wedding Singer or Click, but he just misses the mark this time around. This was truly a messy comedy that never managed to catch my attention, or even get a smile out of me. I had no fun at all with Zookeeper.

Griffin Keyes (Kevin James) is a zookeeper who is about to propose to his beautiful girlfriend, Stephanie (Leslie Bibb), in the beach. He has everything planned: horseback riding in the sand as the sun sets, a message in a bottle, a ring, mariachis, and even fireworks. The only problem is that Stephanie says no because she just isn’t ready to have a long term relationship with a zookeeper. Five years later, Griffin is still a zookeeper who seems to be enjoying what he`s doing. He excels in his work and the animals are lucky to have him around. Some of his co-workers include Venom (Ken Jeong), Shane (Donnie Wahlberg), and the lovely and caring vet Kate (Rosario Dawson). Griffin is preparing his brother, Dave (Nat Faxon), an engagement party at the zoo and he runs into Stephanie once again. She seems interested in him, but he`s still working at the zoo and he has competition from another one of her exes: Gale (Joe Rogan). The only solution seems to be quitting the zoo and working with his brother for a luxury car dealership. The animals in the zoo decide to help Griffin out by breaking their code of silence and giving him advice on mating. These animals include Bernie the Gorilla (voiced by Nick Nolte), Donald the Monkey (Adam Sandler), Joe the Lion (Sylvester Stallone), Janet the Lioness (Cher), Barry the Elephant (Judd Apatow), Jerome the Bear (Jon Favreau), and Mollie the Giraffe (Maya Rudolph).

Anyone who has seen a romantic comedy before will know where this plot is heading five minutes into the movie. I don’t actually have a problem with this as long as I have a fun time getting to the predicted finale, but the trip just isn’t worth it since there are very few funny moments. The talking CGI animal effects aren’t very well done, but that wouldn’t be a problem either if they had been given some funny material to work with. It`s too bad because the cast was really incredible and they could have done much better work on their own. The only true funny moment in this movie is the five minute scene between James and the gorilla as they hang out together in TGIF. It is truly a very funny scene and perhaps the only moment in which James has a connection with one of the characters in the movie. Too bad that was only part of the side story and the entire film focused on something entirely different. Kevin James is a very funny man, but we can see his physical comedy anytime on television. The material he had to work with here was just pathetic, but he is partly to blame because he helped write it. I don’t see another sequel coming out of this like in Dr. Doolittle or Night at the Museum because it really goes nowhere. This is the second Kevin James movie that I`ve seen this month that has completely disappointed me (The Dilemma). Small kids might enjoy the talking animals, but adults will most likely find this movie disappointing.

 

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My Review: Unstoppable (8/10)

¨This ain`t training. In training they just give you an F. Out here you get killed!¨

It has been only a year since Denzel Washington last stared in a movie involving a train as the main protagonist. Even though he teamed up once again with director Tony Scott, this time it is a different train and a different character, not a sequel. This is a far superior movie as well and it will keep you at the edge of your seat from the very beginning. Pelham was more of a crime thriller, and Unstoppable is just a plain good action film. Once the runaway train with no one on board begins to pick up speed and become some sort of a chemical missile the movie will have hooked you and it will not let you go until the very end. There is not anything special or original about this movie, but it works really well thanks to Denzel Washington (who when it comes to action is always a very bankable star). Chris Pine (from Star Trek fame) is a pleasant surprise as well and he really gives an up to par performance with Washington, and the chemistry between both of them is great. They made for a surprisingly good duo and Mark Bomback`s (Live Free or Die Hard) easy going believable script also helped make this film a pleasant movie going experience. The stars of the film are just two ordinary people who decide to take a huge risk in order to save thousands of lives, and everyone likes a story about heroes.  

The plot is pretty simple and the title of the film is pretty self explanatory: an unmanned half mile long train at increasing speed is just unstoppable. The movie is actually based on a real runaway train incident that occurred in Ohio in 2001, but of course Hollywood also has to add some ingredients to spice up the story. There is no way that oil/chemical storage tanks would be placed right under a curved bridge track (known as the Stanton Curve in this film). The story takes place in Pennsylvania where Frank (Denzel Washington), a veteran train engineer who has worked for the company for 28 years, has to team up for the day with Will Colson (Chris Pine) a young conductor with little field experience. In the meantime an incident has occurred in one of the tracks when Dewey (Ethan Suplee) accidently leaves the brakes off a freight train carrying some sort of dangerous and explosive chemical, and the vehicle begins to pick up speed and head to a very populated town without anyone on board to stop it. Frank and Will are in the same track and decide to try to catch up to the runaway train in reverse in order to try to reduce its speed. It’s a risky decision, but with the help of Connie (Rosario Dawson), the operator from the station with whom they communicate back and forth, they decide to try to stop the unstoppable.   

This is actually the fifth time that Tony Scott and Denzel Washington have collaborated together and they have made some great films (Man on Fire being by far my favorite one). Unstoppable is no exception and it works really well as an action film for several reasons. First of all we don`t have any villains in this story. Everything that goes wrong is a result of human error and stupidity. There are very bad decisions made here and that is actually the way it is most of the time in the real world. An accident has occurred and now two ordinary people have to come together in order to try to become heroes. They have no super powers, they are simply trying to do the best they can in their everyday lives. Beside the great chemistry between the two main characters, there are also some good supporting characters like Rosario Dawson and Lew Temple who simply enhance the movie even more. Tony Scott`s classic signature is all over this movie with shaky camera scenes and real action scenes (hardly no CGI is used) which give this film a more realistic feeling to it. The cinematography enhances the sense of urgency and speed of the train. Unstoppable was a very pleasant surprise and Scott knows how to make action movies, and having Denzel Washington on board is always a plus. Unstoppable is a simple movie that actually worked really well and I had a great time in the theater.

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